Bad Apples
by Gloredhel
Summary: Kinda a spin-off of my other stuff, Rafe's POV on general stuff, during HS...Danny andhim, pre-war, pre-most everything...very sweet! Read and Review, i want to continue it based on your responses!!!


DISCLAIMER: They don't belong to me :( I wish Josh did (lol can u blame me??) but he belongs to that blonde chick from Planet of the Apes so...well...anybody you don't recognize from the movie is mine! The title is a Guns N Roses song that probably nobody 'cept for me knows, cuz well i'm weird like that ;)  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well I've finished the whole "Susie" story and I'm trying to write some more about PH, or based on it. This time I'm gonna write from Rafe's point of view, during highschool. Susie and Danny'll be in there...should i do something from Danny's POV next?? I NEED ADVICE! Read the note at the ending of this story, it'll explain that this is sort of like a sample of the stuff i might write, depending on reviews! lol read, review, and enjoy!  
  
  
  
Bad Apples  
  
  
...It's hard to reflect on the past without writing out everything bad that happened. One would rather remember all the good times, times that were uncomplicated and simple. Times when the largest obstacle was how to finish that report on Othello for Mrs. Brinade by tomorrow while still managing to sneak out and get a little drunk. Those days were so much easier--no kids, no past, no horrible memories 'bout things that can't be erased. It was better then; just me, Danny, and Susie, and the rules we loved to break...  
  
"How about you, Mr. McCawley. Would you care to enlighten us as to your feelings concerning the American Revolution?" Mrs. Gradey slammed her hand down on my desk , and glared at me through her thick, horn-rimmed glasses.  
"Surely," I responded, straightening up in my seat and struggling for an answer before I spoke. "The American Revolution was, well, kinda l ike when your parents ground ya."  
The class began to chuckle as I cracked a grin and continued.  
"See, the Brits--they'd be the parents, and us here--we'd be the kids. So well the kids were sick of the parents--the Brits, remember?-- bossing 'em around and shi-i mean stuff, so they started fightin' back and won their independence."  
"Mr. McCawley, I believe you might have made an inkling of sense there. Now," she said moving on down the row of desks to pick on Joe Conley, "Explain General Washington's tactics..."  
Lord, I was bored. This class was less interesting than a sleeping fish. Looking out the window at the open fields, I wished I was flying over them in my daddy's crop duster. Dammit, there were thirty more minutes 'til this class was dismissed. I gazed out the door window, looking for anyone interesting to pass by and keep myself occupied.  
Suddenly, Suze was out there, looking mighty worried. Susie's my little sister, only younger by a year. Anyways, she was lookin' miffed about something and was motioning for me to join her outside.  
"Scuse me Mrs Gradey?" I asked, putting my hand up. "Can I be excused? Really gotta use the little boys' room."  
  
  
...The nice thing about having a sister so close to me in age was that we could see eachother in school as oftena s we wanted. Plus, we were pretty close so it didn't really matter. It was my senior year, and she was dating Danny Walker, my best friend since we were babies. First, it kinda bothered me--but then i got used to the idea and it turned out to be alright...  
  
  
"Whatsa matter?" I asked meeting her in front of the lockers by the water fountain.  
"Danny's in trouble again," she chagrined, rolling her eyes.  
"Shit, what'd he do now?"  
"They smelled smoke on him in the nurse's office this morning, when they did the eye test thing. So that fuckin' old biddy went and told Mr. Leifter to check his locker and they found his damn stoges."  
"Argh...not again..."  
See, Danny always had this way of gettin' into trouble. And I was always the one who got him out of it.  
Suze and I marched ourselves down to the Principal's Office. I was a Senior, and the layout still remained the same as it had been during my freshman year. In the corner was Miss Freudnam's desk, cluttered with random photos of her grandchildren and memos posted all over the place. As usual, it was empty. The secretary was off making her usual rounds, checking attendance and such. We walked up to the locked door that led to Principal Leifter's room and peered through the slats provided by the blinds. This room, too, remained the same as it always had been. Leiter sat behind his desk like some sort of businessman, twiddling his thumbs nervously and, on occasion, adjusting his ridiculous toupee to look more "natural". Lookin' to the other side of the room, I saw the other familiar item. Danny sat on the wooden bench in the corner, receiving the lecture he always received with dignity. He was diggin the toe of his shoe into the tiled floor, rollin ghis eyes on occasion and continuously nodding.  
"So what do you want me to do?" I whispered to Susie, knowing that Leifter's hearing was as good as gone in his right ear, and he'd never hear me even if I were to shout.  
"I don't know," she whispered back, folding her arms. "You're the master of excuses, Rafe. But ya gotta do somethin'-his daddy'll kick his ass if he finds out."  
"That's it!"  
Clearing my throat and smoothing out my slacks and shirt, I knocked on the door. Presently, Leifter opened it.  
"Well, the McCawley children. Can I help you?" he asked, smiling and patting me on the shoulder. I don't know why he was so fond of me, seeing as how I myself was in there as much if not more than Danny, but nevertheless he liked me plenty, the damned bastard.  
Susie scuttled out of the office and down the hall, where I knew she'd wait.  
"Uh, yessir," I began, winking at Danny when Leifter wasn't looking. "See, I heard 'bout what you found in Danny's locker and I have to tell you, it isn't what you think..."  
"Oh, isn't it?" he asked suspiciously, tapping his foot.  
"Um, no sir it isn't. Well, Danny's pops drove us here to school today cuz' we didn't really wanna walk and he was smokin' as always. And so he says to us 'Boys I gotta go visit Miss Roberts and she don't like no smokers, so I'm gonna g ive you my pack of cigarettes here and you jus' hide 'em in your locker til I see you later on', and so, Mr. Leifter, this is all a really big mess."  
"Is this true, Mr. Walker?" he asked, turning to Danny.  
"Uh...'course it is Sir," he smiled, trying to act innocent.  
"Well then, you're both excused. Get back to class and Mr. Walker, don't let me ever catch you with tobacco again!" Leifter called as we hustled down the hallway and towards the janitor's closet, which nobody ever used 'til after-hours, where we knew Suze would be.  
Standing in the crowded little room she rushed to Danny and kissed him. Then she hit him on the arm.   
"I can't believe you got busted," she said, disappointed.  
"I know, but I still got 'em, thanks to Rafe's story," Danny responded, smilin broadly and pulling out the bent pack of cigarettes from his pocket.  
"And seeing as how it's thanks to me that you've sitll got those, I call first dibs on em," I snickered, pulling one out and lighting it up. See, most of the staff in school smoked so nobody really ever figured us out.   
Suze took one for herself, as did Walker. We sat on the floor in silence, listening for the gimpy footsteps of the janitor, Bill, who had lost his foot in the War. Danny played with Susie's hands and i threw a stray tennis ball against the wall. Looking at my watch, I saw we had 5 minutes 'til school let out.  
"I'm gonna go back to class now," Suze said, standing up slowly and putting her cigarette out in the mop bucket. "If I go back and say I was at the nurse's, I won't get a cut." She kissed Danny goodbye, and smiled at me quickly as she let herself out of the closet.  
"It's lucky we don't ever get cuts Rafe," Danny joked, "Or we'd be stuck here another year."  
"No doubt about that," I grinned, staring out the tiny slot of a window at the clouds accumulating outside. "It's gonna be a storm tonight."  
"Did it start yet?"  
"Nah, but it's already raining. We're gonna have to hurry up home or we'll get drenched."  
"Say, how ya been doin lately? I mean, with your parents and all..."  
I rarely talked about the death of my parents. They had died in a car accident a month and half before and I was doin alright about it. Susie was pretty shook up, but I considered myself to be healing.  
"I'm alright. Yea, I miss 'em and all...but things are meant to happen, I couldnt've changed it."  
"Suze gets distant whenever I mention it. She alright?"  
"Yea, I'm tkain' care of her. It's tough, but we manage, ya know?"  
"What's gonna happen when you- we -leave for the force next year?"  
"She'll live, man. We're not gonna be that far away, and it's not like there's gonna be a war or any shit like that, right?"  
"Yea, of course. Shit, we'd better get out there, she's meetin' us by the oak out front and from the looks of it, it's pouring."  
  
  
...Well Danny did care an awful lot for my Girly. He said he loved her, and to this day I believe it. So's we met her outside in the pouring rain and Danny gave her his coat to put over her head. We decided not to run, cuz there wasn't any thunder or anythin'. Suze parted ways with us at Meghan Jarrock's house, seein' as they had to study for some big math test they'd be takin' the next day. That left me and Danny walkin' home. In a year from now, we'd be in the US forces, flyin' bigger and better planes than the crop dusters we played chicken with back in Tenny. Nobody could've told us we'd be at war. Nobody could've told us that Danny'd be gone by now next year. Nobody could've ever touched that moment, when we walked home together in the pouring rain, down the dirt streets that we had grown up on together-- me and Walker, best of friends for life, always watchin' out for eachother and keepin' the other out of trouble...  
  
Fin  
  
P.S. Do you guys like this? I think I'll do a Danny fic like this next, or maybe do something cool, like all three people (Rafe, Danny, Susie), a chapter for each's thoughts, on a period in all of their lives. A series like that, or something. what do you all think??  
  



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